PEV left me with missing hand, disfigured face: 16 years later, Roselyne yet to get corrective surgery
Roselyne Nakhumicha, 16, at her home at Bikeke in Trans Nzoia County. Her family says it is unable to meet the high cost of the medical procedures that Roselyne requires.
Roselyne Nakhumicha is seated on a plastic chair inside her parents’ one-bedroom mud-walled house in Bikeke village, Trans Nzoia County, doing her homework.
She is 16. A missing left hand and disfigured face are a stark reminder of the horror of the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
Roselyne, a Form One student at Friends School Sirende, was an infant when the violence broke out over the disputed presidential election results.
She was six months old in January 2008 when she had the encounter that would forever leave her carrying the scars of that time when the country went mad.
Opposition supporter, angry at the swearing-in of President Mwai Kibaki on December 30, 2007, set her parents’ house on fire at dusk.
Her mother, Susan Khamala, had just returned home from the bush where she had spent the day with Roselyn, fearing attacks by rowdy gangs that had been terrorising villagers at the time.
Susan tells Nation.Africa she left her baby sleeping in the house at 6pm and went to the river nearby to fetch water for domestic use, only to find her house in flames when she returned. She dashed to the house upon spotting the flames, desperate to rescue her baby.
“It was horrific and I cannot remember what transpired next, but I only found out that I was in a hospital bed at the then Kitale county hospital when I woke up from a coma,” she narrates.
Neighbours had helped put out the fire and rescued the baby whose face and hands were badly burnt.
Susan and her husband David Khamala would spend the following months in and out of the hospital getting treatment for their beloved child, exhausting their meagre earnings from menial jobs.
Their daughter has been to the Kijabe eye clinic twice, where doctors operated on her. It is also at the same hospital that her left hand was amputated at the wrist.
Fifteen years after the incident, Roselyne desires to have reconstructive surgery. She is disturbed by the scars on her body.
“Doctors told me I may not be able to undergo the surgery once I am 40 years. It is my desperate and humble appeal to well-wishers, be it the President, our governor, or any other person of goodwill, so that I may regain my looks,” appeals the teenager. She adds that she if often teased about how she looks.
She is asking well-wishers to support her have surgery at the Kijabe hospital. Citing her parent’s humble background, Roselyne says they cannot raise the Sh700,000 required for the procedure. Her father, a boda boda operator, says his family has suffered hard times as it deals with the high medical bills.
The Khamalas have also appealed to persons of goodwill to help their daughter undergo skin grafting, noting that this will boost her self-confidence and motivate her to do better in school.
A neighbour, Maureen Kundu, describes Roselyne as a focused and dedicated young girl who is determined to do well in her education. With good support for her health care and education, she says Roselyn is poised to excel.
“I have been their neighbour for quite some time now and I do understand their predicament. They struggle to make ends meet, living from hand to mouth and any form of support to the family would be welcome,” Ms Kundu says.
